Valkyria Chronicles: The Fields of Assen
by Pinemartin
Summary: Follows 2nd Lt. Mary Bholm and the 31st Reconnaissance Regiment as they fight their way through the northern front of the Atlantic Federation's 1935 war with the East Europan Imperial Alliance. Author's Note: If you have any suggestions or critiques please feel free to leave them!
1. Prolugue: First Encounter

"_The early months of the Second Europan War were exceptionally difficult for many of our troops. Many of our units were poorly equipped and trained. Of the Rhineland Army's 15__th__ Corps, to which I was assigned, over 50% of the infantry was comprised of poorly-trained scouts. Clearly this was a flaw in the Federation's overall defensive strategy, and such a weakness was reflected on all of early battles along the frontier…"_

-1st Lieutenant Mary Bholm, Interview, Circa 1937

* * *

In the year 1935, due to increase shortages of ragnite, the East Europan Imperial Alliance's 8th Army Group launched a three prong invasion of its neighbor, the Atlantic Federation. In response, the Federation moved forward the armies of its 12th Army Group to stem the invasion of its frontier. To the average, poorly-equipped Federal soldier, however, this was a death sentence…

* * *

10 miles south of Stavern, Assen, Atlantic Federation.

"Blimey, Georgie, have you ever seen such a rat hole before?" said a Federation sergeant as his troop entered the blasted, ruined remains of a village.

"That's _Lieutenant Bates _to you sergeant," sighed the troop's officer. His troop, part of the Rhineland Army's 15th Corps' 31st Reconnaissance Regiment, was ordered to hold this village junction against the Empire.

"_As if this is any good…_" thought the Lieutenant. To him, this mission was like using pebbles to dam a great river.

"I've seen a rat hole like this before…" chimed a scout.

"Oh yeah, Scotty, where's that?"

"The slums of Hadleigh, Sarge," the troop laughed.

As the troops joked the Lt. stopped. Something was amiss…

"Hey, where's 2nd Lt. Bholm?"

"Ahh Mary? She's picking up the rear… I think," said the Sergeant.

The Lt. shook his head and sighed again.

"_Now we're screwed if we need the armored car…_" he thought as a 45mm shell whizzed past and slammed into the building behind him.

* * *

2nd Lt. Mary Bholm and her armored car were picking up the rear of the troop.

"Hmm…"

"Is something on your mind, ma'am?" asked the driver

The wavy-haired brunette of a Lt. sighed then smiled,

"I'm already home sick, Anna…" she said

The radio operator, Corporal Susan Cole, chuckled. She nudged Corporal Anna Coral, the driver and engineer.

"I guess even the great Mary has feelings," she said before the radio crackled to life.

_"-Bholm! Bholm!-"_

Mary sighed again as Susan passed her the headset.

"Yes Lt. Bates?" she answered

_"-Where the hell are you?-"_

"I'm on way, picking up the rear," she replied. Mary hated dealing with Bates. He was always so disagreeable.

_"-Well you better get your ass here fast-"_

"Wh-"

The armored car jolted with a near explosion.

"What the hells that!?" screamed Susan

"Quick, you idiots, _Schnell! Schnell!_" yelled Mary at Anna as she dropped the headset back to Susan and looked through the reticle of her armored car's gun, a low velocity 37mm Puteaux Model 18. It wasn't much; besides the M-18, the Type-34 heavy armored car only mounted a hull 7.62mm Gram MG and a co-axil Gram MG. It was a vehicle designed with the sole purpose of supporting infantry, not battling tanks.

As Anna quickly threw the Type-34 into reverse, Mary quickly called:

"AP round!"

Susan passed it up. Looking through the reticle again, Mary found where the shot had come from. It was a standard Imperial Light Tank that mounted the 45mm gun in its turret and 85mm mortar in a gondola turret. She smiled.

"Anna, drive around to the right, along the side streets,"

"Ma'am!"

As Anna threw the Type-34 into gear, Mary fired off the round. It bounced with a loud 'punck'.

"Figures…," she muttered, "Sussie, I want a situation report!"

Susan had the headset on and was shouting

"Lt. Bates and the rest of the troops have taken shelter in buildings lining the main road," She turned, looking up at Mary, "He reports there are a total of four Imperial Light Tanks, supported by scouts,"

"Looks like we hit the tip of the Empire's Assen Invasion Force," said Anna as turned into a second alley that ran parallel to the main road. Mary smiled.

"Well girls, looks like today is gonna be a _really _good day." She said "HE round!"

"I don't like the sound of that, Lt…." said Susan as she passed up the round, "And HE? If the AP round didn't pen, what good would-"

"We won't be shooting at their armor, Sussie," Mary peered out of the cupola's small view port, "Halt!"

Switching to the reticle of the M-18, she rotated the turret and aiming through the slight gap between the ruins. She smiled and pulled the trigger. It was an impossible shot, even Mary had her doubts. However, in war, she held the belief that you would never know unless you tried.

* * *

The Imperial Light Tank was moving down the main street, toward the alley that the Federal armored car had disappeared in to. It ignored the useless rifle fire that rained down from the buildings the Federal scouts had sought shelter in, so when the 37mm HE shell impacted on its left treads, de-tracking it, the crew was quite surprised.

"This is tank 301! We have been immobilized! Enemy Armored car spotted in vicinity, requesting support!"

"_301! This is 303, what's your current position?_" came the reply over the radio

"303, we are held up on the north-eastern end of the main road" said the commander as he peered thru his cupola view-slits, trying to see where the fire coming from. Just as he turned to look out through the rear-facing slit, he saw the armored car pop out of a side alley 15 feet behind his tank.

The Imperial tank commander swore at his crew as the armored car took the shot.

* * *

"We did it Lt.!" Susan cried as the shot exploded into the Imperial tanks rear radiator. Mary ignored her as she loaded and fired a second time. This round detonated the tank in a swirl of bluish-orange flames.

"HE round!"

"Lt.!" shouted Susan as she passed up another shell, "Enemy sighted to the right!"

Rotating the turret to the right, Mary spotted the second Imperial light tank as it immerged from a side alley. Slamming the breech close, she fired. It hit the tank square in the driver's vision slit, hopefully blinding him briefly.

"Anna! Move us forward across the street and turn right into the back alley, quick"

Anna floored the armored car across the street, narrowly missing the 45mm shell that smashed into the building behind them. Turning down the side alley, they barreled through a squad of Imperial scouts.

"My bad," muttered Anna as she shifted gears.

"Turn right, down that alley, then left on to the main road," She smiled pleasantly, peering through the cupola slits, "We're going to get close…"

She looked down at Susan.

"Give me an APCR round"

Susan grabbed and passed it up.

"It's the last one Lt…" she said nervously

Mary smiled again as she loaded and slammed the breech close. Peering through the reticle, she began to rotate the turret left. Turning hard to the right, they soon emerged on to the main street, were they narrowly missed another shot from the still immobilized tank. Quickly, Anna swerved the Type-34 left. Aiming directly at the light tank's turret as it tried to rotate to face the armored car, Mary fired the APCR round from 5 feet away into the 45mm gun's mantle. With a boom, the turret stopped rotating.

* * *

Imperial Captain had no clue what was going on. His Scouts had reported three Federal reconnaissance squads had deployed at the northern section of the town supported by a single Anti-personal armored car. So he sent his platoon of four tanks northward, as well as two squads of supporting scouts and a single squad of shocktroopers, deeming the force sufficient enough to push the lightly armed Federation scouts out of the town.

Now he started to receive damaging news. Out of the four tanks deployed, two were already destroyed within minutes of each other by the armored car, and his Infantry had been pinned down by heavy fire from Federal snipers.

Sitting in his staff car in the ruined town square, the captain ordered his radio operator.

"Notify the remaining scout and Lancer squads to reinforce our northern force,"

* * *

"They're definitely pissed now, old boys," chimed the Sergeant as Lt. Bates and his squads lay prone on the floor of what was at one time a shoe store. Across the street, Imperial rifle fire was beginning to increase.

"Uhh, Lt.," called the Federal scout-radioman named Scotty, as he crouched behind a counter.

"What is it, Corporal?" shouted Bates as he fired his SMG out of the busted window.

"I would like to suggest the idea that the Imps are being reinforced, Sah?"

"No shit, genius," said Bates as he ducked back down just as a hail of bullets began to chew up his window.

Bates knew his troop, numbering maybe around 60, was battling a Imperial spearhead numbering around three times that. His small force had already been pushed to their limit, and he knew they couldn't hold much longer without any major support.

"Corporal," he called out to Scotty, "Radio to regimental headquarters for support immediately,"

Bates then peered out the window.

"And does anyone know where the hell Bholm is?"

* * *

Author's note:

Please, If anyone has any _Constructive_ suggestions or comments let me know, enjoy!


	2. Chapter 1: New Challenges

_"1__st__ Lieutenant Bholm? Well, personally, she wasn't one to communicate clearly to others and was sort of a loose-cannon. Professionally, however, she was an eccentric officer, one who constantly adapted to many situations and was a superb tank commander…"_

-Captain George Bates, Interview, Circa 1937

* * *

5 miles east of the village, I Scout Battalion /31st Reconnaissance HQ

Captain Arthur Cole was worried as he looked at his map setup on the wooden table in the barn. As commander of B Company, his command was spread thin…

To the west, 1st Platoon had made contact with the vanguard of the Empire's 101st and 22nd Corps, mainly elements from the 46th Armored Division. To the south and northeast, 2nd and 3rd Platoons were deployed as flank pickets. None were in range of each other to give support, due to size of the frontline he and his company was expected to hold. If only we had more men…

"Is something troubling you, Captain?" said a soft voice from the barn entrance.

"This whole blasted war troubles me, ma'am" he said, turning and saluting the owner of the voice.

Standing at the entrance was a small, young woman with untidy, disheveled hair. Her brown uniform was worn and un-kept and although her face had a permanent look of exhaustion on it, she was still pretty.

Lt. Colonel Kasserine Beyer, I Bat./31st Recon Regt. Commanding Officer, sighed. Kasserine was new, having been transferred and "Promoted" from commanding of the 6th Reserve Quartermaster Battalion to the present 1st Scout Battalion. At 24, she was young for an officer. Thus, the middle-aged Arthur couldn't help but pity the girl, who went from being a paper-pushing bureaucrat to a front-line officer due to this war.

Moving forward, she adjusted her glasses and gazed down at the map. She sighed again.

"We're at a distinct disadvantage here, Captain," she said "C Company is deployed further to the northeast, connecting us with 2nd Scout Bat. While A Company holds the ridge to the south,"

She tapped the map and murmured grimly, "We're using 700 soldiers to cover a frontline that would normally be covered by 2000, nor do we have any supporting armor or artillery outside of the regiment's armored cars and our battalion's Infantry guns…"

Arthur nodded. Being spread thin with no heavy support and the bulk of their troops being poorly-equipped and trained scouts, there was very little they could do against the advancing Imperial Army. To put it simply, their mission to hold this town was doomed from the beginning.

A radio operator hurried in and saluted.

"Ma'am, Sir," He said, "2nd Lieutenant Bates is requesting reinforcements for 1st Platoon,"

Removing her glasses, Beyer began to wipe them with her brown coat.

"Captain," she said, her soft voice out of place in this situation "The reason for my visit to you today was to notify you of the updated intelligence on our opponent's strength deployed against us, which unfortunately for us, is the entire Imperial 46th Armored Division, as well as supporting elements of the 57th and 28th Infantry Divisions,"

"Shit" breathed Arthur, and Beyer nodded

"As such, a force of 20,000 Imperials, supported by numerous tanks, are spearheading in our sector alone," she breathed "The situation is also similar with the other battalions, so, indeed the only course of action that would not result in exceptionally high casualties is for us to withdraw,"

"Is that your orders ma'am?" said Arthur dejectedly

"Yes," she said as she replaced her glasses. "All battalions received the order to fall back to minimalize losses ten minutes ago from regimental HQ,"

She turned to the radio operator and gave him a small smile.

"Notify the 2nd Lieutenant that his request for reinforcements is denied, and that he is to disengage, also notify all platoons of our withdraw, and for the Infantry Gun battery to cover our withdraw,"

"Ma'am!" He saluted and took off.

Turning back to the table, she saw the grim look on Arthur's face as he folded up his map.

"My apologies Captain, It appears my news have troubled you further," she said as she went and patted his back. "Maybe our next battle will be better,"

Arthur sighed.

* * *

Imperial Lieutenant Karl Ruoff of the 46th Armored Division tiredly lead the last two remaining tanks in his platoon forward through the side streets. Although appearing calm, he was puzzled. The fact that a single Anti-personal Armored car had made mince-meat of his subordinates and had helped bottle-up the numerically superior Imperial force amazed him. No sort of dinky Federation armored car could ever achieve such a score by itself. It had to be one thing, he thought. This Federation commander was good.

"302, follow behind at a distance," he radioed to his last platoon mate. "According to the reports, The enemy has been using the back alleys to hit us,"

"Sir!"

Rotating the turret to the right, Karl caught a glimpse of the armored car as they crossed a street.

"Now let's see if we can catch ourselves a little mouse."

* * *

The Type-34 swerved, narrowly dodging an Anti-tank lance round as it rocketed passed, detonating within a ruined shop.

"Lt.! Bates is requesting reinforcements from Headquarters," Shouted Susan as the armored car shuddered from another near miss.

Mary was getting annoyed. She fired a HE round at the slightly visible figures of the Imperial soldiers inside of a ruined shop where the lance shot had originated.

"Blast, where the hell are the last two Imp tanks?" she cursed to herself, "HE round!"

"Ma'am…" called Anna as she swerved the armored car out of the alley on to a street. Immediately to their left, as if it was waiting for them, was an Imperial light tank.

"Anna! Turn right!" Mary shouted as the Imperial tank fired and missed.

"Negative, Ma'am…" She called.

"Wha…" The Type-34 shuddered with a near explosion. Peering through the view-slits, she saw a second Imperial tank emerge from around a building.

"Quick! Reverse!" Mary yelled as she fired a shot at the first tank. Not surprisingly, the round bounced. "HE round,"

"Well that answers your question about the location, Lt…" said Susan, passing up a round as Anna threw the armored car into reverse back down the alley.

Seconds later, two geysers of rubble erupted were they had been. Mary smirked as she loaded the round.

"Interesting, looks like the Imps are getting smarter," she peered through the cupola at their surroundings. She quickly spotted a second alley to her right. Thinking quickly, she formulated a plan.

"Turn right," she called, "Down this alley,"

_Apparently the challenges are endless today_, she thought; _Now let's see if we can catch these smart Imps at their own game._

* * *

"Damn," cursed Ruoff as the armored car reversed back into the alley, narrowly avoiding his and his platoon mate's shots.

"I got this Lt.!" shouted his platoon mate, a new sergeant from Lecca. Quickly he moved his tank down the alley the armored car had disappeared back into.

Instantly, Ruoff's instinct stirred.

"Wait sergeant!" he called out on the radio, just as the sergeant's tank exploded.


	3. Appendix 1: 31st Recon Order of Battle

31st Reconnaissance Regiment Order of Battle, Assen Campaign, 1935

- 31st Reconnaissance Regiment (Colonel Scott Mirez)

- - Staff Company

- - - Signals Platoon (3x Radios)

- - - Transport Platoon (2x Jeeps, 3x Trucks)

- - I. Scout Battalion (Lt. Colonel Kasserine Beyer)

- - - Staff Company

- - - A Company (Captain )

- - - B Company (Captain Arthur Cole)

- - - - 1st Platoon (2nd Lt. George Bates; 24 Scouts, 3 Snipers, 3 AT-Snipers)

- - - - 2nd Platoon (2nd Lt.)

- - - - 3rd Platoon (2nd Lt.)

- - - C Company (Captain )

- - II. Scout Battalion (Lt. Colonel )

- - III. Scout Battalion (Lt. Colonel )

- - IV. Support Battalion (Lt Colonel Joseph Forres)

- - - Staff Company

- - - 1st Anti-Tank Company (Captain)

- - - - 1st Lancer Platoon ((2nd Lt.); 12 Lancers, 12 Shocktroopers, 6 Scouts)

- - - - 2nd Lancer Platoon (2nd Lt.)

- - - - 1st Light Anti-tank Gun Platoon ((2nd lt.); 6x Light Anti-Tank Guns)

- - - 2nd Anti-Tank Company (Captain)

- - - 31st Armoured Reconnaissance Company (Captain)

- - - - 1st Platoon ((2nd Lt. Mary Bholm); 3x Armored Cars)

- - - - 2nd Platoon (2nd Lt.)

- - - - 3rd Platoon (2nd Lt.)

- - - 31st Medical Company (Captain)

* * *

Notes:

The 31st Reconnaissance Regiment was a corps-level unit, meaning it was under the control of the Corps commander, and was independent of any division.

If anyone has anything to suggest, please feel free to say it! :D


	4. Chapter 2: Covering Withdraw

"… We withdrew today. It was an inevitable loss. The Imperials outnumbered us twenty to one and we had no equipment, no support, and our lines were spread way too thin. Heh, to a former logistics officer like me, this predicament is what we would call hell…"

- Lt. Colonel Kasserine Beyer, Journal entry, 1935

* * *

Lt. George Bates was in a bit of a bind.

"Crap," he said as the volume of hostile fire increased, heralding the arrival of more Imperial troops, "Where the hell is our reinforcements?"

"Sah! HQ has denied our request for reinforcement!" called Scotty, who was huddled behind the chewed up remnants of what was once a counter with the witty sergeant. "It's a direct order from Lt. Col. Beyer! We're pulling out!"

"Ohhh, you've gotta be kidding me…" He said as he crawled over to them. "What's our status?"

"Could jolly well be better if I do say so myself," said the Sergeant as he fired his rifle over the counter. He was answered by a hail of bullets from across the street.

Lt. Bates was not impressed with his Sergeant's humor. Scotty cleared his throat nervously.

"Umm, Sgt. Crowdy's 2nd squad is holed up two buildings down the road, while Sgt. Roche is-"

The radio crackled to life, the excited voice of a woman interrupted him.

"Baker leader! This is Baker Three! Can you hear me, over?"

Bates took the radio receiver from Scotty.

"Baker Three, this is Baker leader what's your status, over?"

"Georgie?-" an explosion of static interrupted the speaker, "Damn, We're hold up in the Northwest section of the town! We, along with the armored car, manage to take out one tank, but there's Imps everywhere! What the hell's going on?!"

Bates sighed, at least he now knew where his armored car went.

"Baker Three! Squads 1 and 2 are disengaging and falling back! Hold your position until we link up with you, and relay that to Lt. Bholm, over"

"Whatta ya mean disengage? Things are just gettin interesting, over" came the puzzled reply.

Bates closed his eyes in irritation. Why did his subordinates have to be so-

"Clare has a point, sah" chimed the witty sergeant as he pitched a grenade out the window, "I say we fight to the dea-,"

"Crap!" he shouted into the radio, "It's an Order, Sergeant Roche!"

"Yessir, Baker three out,"

"Just saying, Georgie…" muttered the witty sergeant, "Mary and Cora are right, why are you always so disagreeable?"

"Shit"

* * *

"Hohoho," chuckled Sergeant Clare Roche as she clutched her Boyes Anti-Tank Sniper rifle and watched the Imperial tank burn furiously on the alley below her window. Moving to another window, she peered down on the beat up Type-34 armored car next to the burning wreck. Lt. Mary's head popped up from the car's open cupola. Her black beret and brown hair was all tousled.

"Nice shot Clarie!, I was in a bit of a spot there until I saw your Boyes sticking out of the window,"

"All in a days work!" she called down, "Hey Mary! Georgie says were pulling out! Me and my squads to hold this block till him and the others link up with us! Your also ordered to hold up with us."

Mary frowned.

"I know Clarie, but I got one more tank to deal with…" The conversation was cut short as an 85mm mortar round impacted the second floor of Clare's building.

"Crap!" shouted Clare as she and her Scout-radioman dove to the floor as the room next door was obliterated. The radio crackled, "You alright, Sergeant Roche?" It was Mary's Radio operator, Susan. Quickly scrambling for the receiver, she peered back out the window and watched as the armored car reversed up the alley.

"Roger, We're fine!" she answered "Could you guys try hold off the last tank, we'll try to occupy the Imp infantry until Georgie gets here," She could hear her scouts down stairs opening up on unseen Imps.

"Roger, Sergeant" came the reply "We'll see ya on the other side, out"

Tossing the receiver back to her radioman, she picked up the huge Boyes AT sniper rifle.

"Come on, Billy, lets get our selves a better view of the action…"

* * *

As Anna reversed the armored car, Mary tried to form a plan in her mind. With three out of the four imperial tanks taken care of, the last one was going to be the most difficult. It had witnessed her hit-and-run tactics and she knew for sure that the commander would be on his guard.

"Sussie, how much rounds do we have," she called

"Eight left HE left, ma'am," Susan replied nervously, "we used the last of the AP and APCR on the previous tanks..."

Hmmm, she thought, this is going to be a tough one...

She was at a disadvantage. She was low on ammunition and out of rounds that could penetrate the Imperial tank and the infantry busy withdrawing, there wasn't much she could do, unless...

She smiled, the armored car had one, lone advantage over the tank, its speed. and her job was only to occupy it till the infantry could finish the withdraw.

"Gear up, girls, this is going to get bumpy," she said, brimming with confidence, "Sussie, pass me a shell,"

Susan quickly passed up the round, sighing.

"Why do I feel like I'm going to regret this?" she muttered

Anna shrugged as she shifted into forward and turned down another alley.

"Its more accurate to say you stomach might regret it" she said seriously.

* * *

Story Notes:

Character Profile:

Mary Helmina Bholm

Age: 20

Hometown: Westershiede, Frank-Vichy Republic (Francia)

Rank(s): 2nd Lieutenant (1935), 1st Lieutenant (1937)

Height: 5.4

Description:

An energetic and bright tank commander, she is renown later in the war as a Tank Ace. She grew up in the industrial city of Westershiede, the daughter of Erich Bholm, who was formally an Imperial tank officer who defected to Federation during EWI with his family. Planning to follow in her family tradition, she enrolled at the Federal Officer's school in Ostend. Here, it was quite apparent that she had inherited her father's adeptness for vehicular warfare. Upon her graduation, she was promoted to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant and was assigned to the Rhineland Army's 15th Corp's 31st Reconnaissance regiment's armored company.

Likes: reading, volleyball, Sandwiches (Salami)

Dislikes: monarchies, disagreeable and annoying people, relish

* * *

Weapons:

Boyes Anti-Tank Sniper rifle

The standard anti-tank weapon deployed among the Atlantic Federation's armies, in numbers, it exceeds the Pia AT Lance in service. Due to its cheap production process and decent penetration power and although it lacked the firepower of the Pia, many Federation officers preferred its deployment, due to the fact that it was easier to train a scout to use a rifle then a lance. Many, such as those in the Special Forces, preferred the "one-shot one-kill" ability of the lance.


End file.
